Dee Marvine
Award-winning author Dee Marvine (1928-2023)Dee Marvine died December 12, 2023, three days after her 95th birthday. She was born Helen Deloise Hall on December 9, 1928. She resided in the home of her daughter, Jane Marvine, and son-in-law, Jim Olin, for the last nine months of her life, often surrounded by her extended family. They shared in stories she wrote, her memoirs, and the music she created with her loving husband of 74 years, Don Marvine. In addition to Jane and her husband Jim, Dee is survived by her son, Paul (Kim Larson) Marvine; six grandchildren, John (Becky) Olin, Chad Olin, Hannah (Manoli Georganas) Olin, Ian (Merissa) Larson, Ryan (Kate) Larson, and Reed Marvine (and his partner, Stefanie Kljucaric); six great grandchildren, Claire and Olivia Olin, Sophia and Elena Larson, Anthony Larson, and Leonidas Georganas; two sisters Marilyn (Bob) Burns and Lynn Hall, and eleven nieces and nephews. Preceding her in death was husband Don, infant son Greg, father Gerald Hall, mother Edna Stromquist Hall, and two brothers Roland (Rosa) Hall and Jerry (Phyllis) Hall. She was born on a farm near Tekamah, NE, she attended Tekamah High School for two years before moving with her family to Omaha, where she graduated from North High School in 1946. At age 18, she married her high-school sweetheart, artist Don Marvine, and they moved to Los Angeles where she worked as a secretary while he attended Art Center College to prepare for his career in graphic design. After art school they settled in Chicago in 1952, and while working with Don in his graphic-design business and raising two children, Jane and Paul, she enrolled in Elmhurst college and graduated in 1968 with honors in English and psychology. When the children were through college, Dee and Don moved to Big Timber, MT, to devote full time to writing and painting. She has four published books; “The Lady Rode Bucking Horses,” was voted “best biography/memoir of the year 1992” by Women Writing the West. Dee applied her passion for music by playing keyboard and singing with the combo they organized and played locally. Their years from 2013 were spent near their extended family in Baltimore, MD. Dee’s legacy lives on in her family and her writing. Information on her books is available below. For more information on purchasing books please see details below or contact Publications@Larson-Marvine.com. Published Books
The Lady Rode Bucking Horses (softcover, Two Dot, imprint of Globe Pequot, January 2005, second printing October 2015,) biography of early Montana horsewoman Fannie Sperry Steele (1887-1983). $14.95 This book depicts an era of the American West when capturing renegade horses from the hills above the homestead served as training ground for extraordinary horsemanship. It tells the story of the outstanding girl who out rode all others at stampedes and roundups, long before these contests of skill and stamina on a bucking horse came to be known as rodeo. After winning the title Lady Bucking Horse Champion of the World at the first Calgary Stampede in 1912, she married a cowboy promoter and they formed their own Wild West show, featuring Fannie as bronc rider and sharpshooter, even riding in far off New York City and in Chicago with Buffalo Bill Cody’s western extravaganza. Later they purchased a dude ranch and Fannie became the first woman licensed by the state of Montana to guide hunters into the Bob Marshall Wilderness. This is the story of a remarkable girl and the woman she became, her spirit undaunted throughout a life marked with courage and adventure, triumph and heartache. Though dramatized to convey the full import of her unique life, the story is true as Fannie lived it. Except for a few minor characters, the fictionalizing of scenes, and story devices added for continuity, the people, places, rodeo events, dates, and diary excerpts are real. Winner of a 2006 WILLA Literary Award (Biography/Memoir category), a national
All Aboard for Paradise (hardcover, Five Star 2004) historical novel set in 1886-1888 Los Angeles. $26.95 The sleepy desert village of Los Angeles suddenly awakens in March 1886, when a railroad fare war reduces the price of a one-way ticket to just one dollar. Claire Chadwick, single 34-year-old mother of 15-year-old Joanna, seizes the opportunity provided by the low fare to change her drab life and joins others on an immigrant train that carries them west. During their journey, she is attracted to an ambitious young adventurer Randy Plank, but her daughter, too, is smitten with Randy, and their lives unfold with the land boom that within two years brings 200,000 people to the burgeoning town. But the inevitable bust follows the irrational boom. Unable to make a go of it, 150,000 leave the area, while 50,000 determined immigrants remain to build the city. Claire, with pluck and luck, manages to survive the bust, along with young bank manager Harry Graham, who also falls in love with her, McKenzie Tate, real estate tycoon, and dynamic Farley Dodd, her employer who is running for mayor. At this critical point, Claire must choose between a safe marriage and her determination to retain her independence.
Sweet Grass (hardcover, Five Star 2003), historical novel set in 1886 Sweet Grass County and Butte, Montana. $26.95 When spunky Swedish spinster Lili Tornquist, age 29, learns that her widowed father will soon remarry a woman she detests, she leaves her Minnesota home to become the mail-order bride of a distant cousin, Gunnar Jorgeson, a Montana sheep rancher. But her new husband falls far short of his promise, and putting aside all she has previously believed about steadfastness and endurance, Lili abandons her marriage to make her own way in the notorious wide-open mining town of Butte. In desperation, unable to find more suitable work, she revives a long-dormant talent and takes a job singing in a hurdy-gurdy house, much to the consternation of two men who love her—mine lawyer Charles Weatherby and union organizer Tom Hawes. Lili feels loyalty to each of them and her integrity is severely tested. After suffering near disgrace, a mine disaster, and a crisis in her chosen career, Lili comes to terms with her fear of another disastrous commitment and her desire to belong somewhere—to someone.
Last Chance (hardcover, Doubleday 1993; paperback, Leisure Books 1998; audio, Books in Motion 2004), historical novel set in 1875 Montana. Nominated by Western Writers of American for their 1994 Best First Novel award. $14.95 The Missouri River is no place for a pretty woman to be traveling on her own, but Mattie Hamil is on a frantic search for her fiancé Cal Bodein, a gambler by choice and charmer by nature. Mattie gave more than her heart to him that last evening back in St. Louis, and though they plan to marry when he returns from seeking his fortune upriver, she cannot wait. Her pregnancy changes everything; now she must find him before her secret is known and she loses her job. AvailabilityThe Lady Rode Bucking Horses is available in softcover in major bookstores and on Amazon.com. All Aboard for Paradise is available in hardcover on Amazon.com. Out-of-print Sweet Grass (hardcover and audio cassette) and Last Chance (hardcover, paperback, audio cassettes and CDs) can be ordered “used” on Amazon.com. New hardcover and softcover copies of all books may also be ordered through publications@Larson-Marvine.com, while supplies last, at the prices listed above plus $7.00 postage and handling. |
Mattie finds a protector in the river-wise and widowed steamboat captain Garnet Tanner, who doesn’t hide his disapproval of her missing fiancé when he finally turns up. But Cal and Mattie love each other. They marry in the post-gold rush town of Last Chance Gulch (soon to become Helena, capital of the territory). However, married life does not run smoothly. The most powerful men in town are out to ruin Cal. In fact, nothing turns out the way Mattie planned, and she needs all the nerve she can muster to keep her going through the trials that lie ahead.